Richmond police arrest armed off-duty cop on roof overlooking Lee monument

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Robert E. Lee monument stands on on Monument Avenue on June 18, 2020 in Richmond, Virginia. Richmond Circuit Court Judge Bradley Cavedo ruled on Thursday to indefinitely extended an injunction preventing the Virginia governor from removing a historic

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RICHMOND, Va. - Police in Richmond say they arrested an armed off-duty cop spotted on the roof of a vacant building overlooking the city's controversial statue of Robert E. Lee.

Eyewitnesses told officers about the armed man around 6:32 a.m. Saturday.

Police say they were preparing to enter the vacant building around 7:47 a.m. when they spotted the suspect outside.

38-year-old Riley O’Shaughnessey, a white man, was charged with trespassing.

He was armed with a handgun, but police say it was carried lawfully.

O’Shaughnessey is an officer with the Richmond International Airport Police Department.

But police say, at the time of his arrest, he was not carrying any law enforcement identification.

Police reopened the traffic circle around Richmond's Lee statue around 10 a.m. after the arrest.

Their investigation is continuing.

The Lee statue is the highest-profile Confederate monument in the former Confederate capital as activists work to take down totems of the Confederacy.

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) has pledged to remove the Lee monument, but a state judge on Thursday extended an order blocking its removal.

The plaintiff in the case seeking to keep the statue in place has about three weeks to file a new complaint.

The Lee statue has been covered in graffiti since widespread police brutality protests swept Richmond and cities across the country.

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